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The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed between the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi and the U.S. Federal Government on September 27, 1830. Dancing Rabbit Creek was the first official treaty signed under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, an Act which allowed the President to negotiate with Indian tribes living within the boundaries of existing U.S. states to voluntarily exchange their lands for unorganized...

Was the cat out of the bag? Would the Chicago news reach her parents back home in Tuscumbia before she made it home to tell them in person? On May 17, 1890, the Chicago Tribune ran a special on the miraculous case of Helen Keller; a blind, deaf and dumb child from Alabama. Keller's wealthy parents had sent her up north to a special institution for the blind. According to the article, Keller's parents...

On an August morning in Montgomery, Alabama, an elderly African-American woman found a seat in one of Montgomery's principal churches and waited for the service to begin. While she waited, however, she was...politely told that accommodations were prepared for her in another part of the building. The lady moved off quietly and took her place in the gallery. In an article in the Montgomery Advertiser...

On August 8, 1865, the Montgomery Advertiser warned its readers to look out for cholera. The article went on to say that it is reported in a state paper, that several well defined cases of cholera have appeared in New York City, and that each resulted fatally. We are no alarmists, but what can prevent terrible fatality, if disease in epidemic form should appear in our beautiful city? The houses in...

The figures were in: on June 29, 1899, the southern iron industry made the best showing in its history. Reporting an estimated 605,919 tons in 1899, pig iron movement in the South increased approximately seven fold from the preceding year's 83,821-ton figure. The Wall Street Journal noted, of this the Birmingham district shipped considerably over half. The Birmingham district was also responsible...

On May 7, 1840, Sam Forwood, in Clark County, Alabama, wrote to his son William on the health of his family. Numerous family letters focused on health. In this correspondence, the first paragraph tended to discuss the health of all members of the family and the history of any sicknesses since the last letter. The Forwood family was generally in sufficient health, despite a fever here and there. However,...

John Dewery, a bright mulatto...nineteen or twenty years old, found himself in a precarious situation. As he was sitting in the Clark County Jail in Alabama on January 7, 1836, the Mobile Commercial Register published an announcement about his capture and arrest as an escaped slave. This was problematic because he swore in vain that he was a freed person. Nevertheless, the paper reported that if his...

Evidently, Clement Comer Clay had been driving Dixon Hall Lewis absolutely crazy. Clay, a U.S. senator from Alabama, was in a feeling of intense anxiety concerning the upcoming election of 1841. Lewis, an Alabama representative, was getting rather annoyed. At Clay's request, Lewis finally sat down to write a letter on January 18, 1841, to Benjamin Fitzpatrick, his brother-in-law and wealthy planter...

In the 1830s, the South was increasingly aware of the North's industrial dominance. Commercial conventions emerged as a way to close this gap. The first meetings focused on single, specific issues such as direct trade with Europe or railroad construction. Later, the conventions would address a wide range of economic concerns. In 1858, Montgomery, Alabama hosted the Southern Commercial Convention....

The Alabama Convention convened in Montgomery as delegates arrived to vote on secession. After long debates and delays, the convention voted 61 to 39 in favor of secession. White Alabamans felt threatened by the North and the Republican Party. Alabama was a strong slave state who would suffer great economic loss if the institution of slavery were revoked. The monetary loss of slave property...